Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives for coming in and for their presentation. According to the opening statement, the current research and development model is unsuitable and has the potential to bankrupt to healthcare system while failing to advance public health. It is very hard to disagree with that. Our questions are to try and scope out the potential for moving away from where we are. I fully appreciate that nobody has any sympathy for politicians, and we probably do not deserve much, but we end up stuck in the middle. Most of us are not medical professionals, although some are, and we get stuck between the funding, the families and the pharmaceutical industry. That is not a very comfortable place for us to be. My experience is that the current system is entirely set up to encourage that. One finds oneself in a situation where one wants to do right by the families, while the pharmaceutical companies say they must make a profit or else they will leave. I do not know how they balance that with what they say about caring about everyone. Whatever solutions we may have, we can agree that the current system is not working. It is not delivering for families and it can put politicians in an unpleasant situation sometimes, not that people will have much sympathy for us.

On public money, has Access to Medicines Ireland an idea how much money the Irish Government spends in research and development on medicines? Does that funding come with any obligations? In my previous life, I represented people in the education sector. One would see these fantastic institutes being built, often with a recognisable brand name on the side or some other form of sponsorship but when we probed what exactly the world of medicine was getting back, as opposed to the company itself, the latter seemed to get a lot in terms of labour and so on. How much do they spend and is there a protocol regarding the return to the State as a result? Are there examples of good practice in respect of the public return on public investment? It appears that while we have the capacity to invest and to subside it, we do not have the capacity to prioritise it.